Bethlehem Twp. Board Strains For An Audience

Bethlehem Township commissioners surveyed their meeting room at 7 last night and saw a big problem.

It was the first meeting since they instituted a new policy that requires at least three people in the audience whenever commissioners conduct business.

But as Chairman Allan Robertson gaveled the meeting to order, only two residents were there: township Recreation Director Judy Haas and Planning Commission member Harold Mellor.

Someone suggested that the new policy wasn't in effect yet because last night's meeting was technically a continuation of the board's Monday meeting, at which the policy was adopted. Monday's meeting went too late for the board to finish its work.

Robertson made a motion to repeal the policy, which he had voted against to begin with.

Then, 5 minutes late, a newspaper reporter walked in and the problem was solved. Or was it?

One commissioner asked whether the reporter was a township resident. Before the reporter could answer, another commissioner said the policy required only three people, not necessarily residents.

Robertson, apparently worried about future meetings, called for a vote on his motion to repeal the three-person requirement.

It failed, with two votes to end the policy and two to continue. Commissioner Robert Birk was absent.

Another provision of the policy requires meetings to end by 10 p.m., and commissioners almost hit the deadline. The meeting ended at 9:45, with Robertson glancing nervously at the clock as the board approved the month's bills.

Highlights of the meeting included a decision to switch janitorial services at the municipal building and a proposal to put a sign at the intersection of Routes 191 and 22 to thank township taxpayers for paying $350,000 for improvements there.

Just before adjournment, Mellor asked commissioners whether the policy could leave them open to a legal challenge that they weren't doing their job.

"The commissioners are elected to conduct public business, not conduct public business with conditions," Mellor said.

Commissioner Larry Spinato, who first proposed the policy, said it was not intended to slow down the township's work, but to avoid an appearance that anything was happening behind residents' backs.

"I don't feel any member of this board would do anything to stop anything from being done by the time it needed to be done," Spinato said.

After the meeting, Robertson was asked whether his motion to repeal the policy might have been moot, since commissioners couldn't have repealed the policy without three people present.

He thought for a second, then said, "That's true.

"We might have had to send the police out to flag someone down on William Penn Highway."